Posts Tagged ‘wine’

The ride up Highway 29 from the city of Napa to Calistoga takes you past some of the greatest wineries in North America -- Silverado, Stag’s Leap, Grgich Hills (to name a few). But don’t limit your explorations to wine tasting. When you reach Calistoga, you’ll see a plume of smoke on the left and a parking lot where Harleys and pickup trucks idle next to Jags and Mercedes. Your nostrils will twitch at the scent of red meat roasting over an oak fire,...

JAKE'S NEW DIGS
Steven's stepson, Jake Klein, is now the Executive Chef at Morrell's Wine Bar and Cafe at Rockefeller Center in New York City. If you're a wine lover, you'll know Morrell's as the place that pours 100 wines by the glass, including Krug Champagne. Well, now there's another reason to visit: Jake has taken over the kitchen and revamped the menu.
Union Square vegetable plate with green goddess dressing and American caviar.
Rumaki...

TAKING A BREAK FROM BARBECUE IN BILBAO
Went to the Basque city of Bilbao (home of the surrealistic Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum) where I overnighted prior to interviewing Victor Arguizoniz at the amazing restaurant Extebarri in the town of Axpe. So what's a guy to eat when his plane is late and he doesn't head out to dinner until midnight? Tapas, of course, at the 100-year-old Victor Montes in the heart of old Bilbao.
Great wines. A...

FRANKFURTERS IN FRANKFURT
Greetings from Frankfurt, the first stop on Steven's European book tour. It was a drop-dead gorgeous day, and it seemed the entire town gathered on the banks of the river.
Half-timber houses in the historic town square.
Of course, no visit to Frankfurt would be complete without a frankfurter, ancestor of the hot dog, served here with a semmel (a crusty hard roll), and a glass of apfelwein, bone-dry...

STEVEN IS A GUEST ON VINE TALK
Steven was recently a guest panelist on the new television series "Vine Talk" hosted by well-known actor, writer, director, foodie, and oenophile Stanley Tucci. (Who can forget Tucci in the 1996 film "Big Night"?)
The premise of the show, which started airing this month in select markets, is that anyone can enjoy wine, regardless of their knowledge of the subject. "It has not taken long to determine that...

New Kid on the Block
You may know Howie "Bulldog" Kleinberg as one of the contestants on Top Chef - Miami. We've known him as a family friend (Susan Kleinberg's son) ever since he was knee high to a pork shoulder. And now he's just opened a terrific new restaurant in North Miami: Bulldog Barbecue.
This isn't your typical barbecue joint, not with the likes of fried oysters, shrimp and grits, white chili, the flying bulldog (a smoked chicken...

There's nothing risky about serving beer with barbecue; it's a great fall-back position. But if you want to raise the bar, serve wine.
Our "Guest Blogger" this month is Pamela Stubbs, a manager at the hot new New York wine emporium, Crush. She has specific suggestions. (FYI, Pamela is the girlfriend of Steven's son, Jake, a New York chef.) Pamela writes:
If seafood is on the menu, think "sparkling wines." This past Fourth of July, Steven...

Red wine with fish?
Steven has grilled in some pretty spectacular settings, but it was hard to beat the site of his recent class at the St. Francis Winery in the Sonoma Valley.
Check out the backdrop: manicured rows of ripening merlot vines with the mountains in the background under a radiant California sky. Wine with barbecue? You bet! And you can even serve red wine with fish.
Pictured here is Steven's planked salmon (recipe...